'Goodnight Malaysia': Listen to last words from MH3700:48

Seeking answers ... A new report into MH370 shows there was a four-hour delay before a search for the missing plane started, news that will provide headaches for Malaysian Minister of Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

MALAYSIA’S Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister has said the country “has nothing to hide” after a report into the disappearance of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 appeared to confirm that the plane was deliberately flown in a westerly direction back over the Malaysia peninsula shortly after it dropped out of radio contact.

In a press conference in Kuala Lumper tonight, Mr Hussein said he will be flying to Canberra for trilateral talks about the ongoing search next week.

He said he also agreed with Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston that claims MH370 could have landed in the Bay of Bengal were “highly unlikely”.

His comments come after the report also showed the plane was missing for four hours before Malaysia’s Rescue Coordination Centre was activated.

As well as the report, officials released the audiotapes of the last transmissions from the missing plane’s cockpit, the cargo manifest and the seating plan.

The report noted that at 1.38am on March 8, 17 minutes after the Boeing 777-200 disappeared from radar, Vietnamese air traffic control questioned the whereabouts of the plane, which was to have entered their airspace.

They told their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur that verbal contact had not been made with MH370.

Other air traffic controls in the region also reported no contact.

The report states that “A playback of a recording from military primary radar revealed that an aircraft with a possibility of MH 370 had made an air-turn back onto a Westerly heading crossing Peninsular Malaysia.”

News_Image_File: Flight vectors ... this map released by the Malaysian authorities shows the probable route of MH370, with the westerly turn sending the plane back over the Malaysian peninsula. The coloured rectangles refer to possible search zones for the aircraft — red designating the zone of highest probability, yellow the zone of lowest probability and green the zone of middling probability.

MORE EXPERTS MAKE CLAIMS

Aviation expert David Learmount told the UK Telegraph that the analysis sgguested that the plane was being flown in such a manner “to avoid Indonesian air space”.

“It was an aircraft that has gone rogue. It didn’t need to follow waypoints. There are no roads in the sky — pilots can go wherever they want,” he said.

But another British expert, marine archaeologist Tim Akers, told the rival Daily Mail newspaper that he believes he has identified plane wreckage off the coast of Vietnam — which if true, would mean that the MH370 did not make the sharp westerly turn as stated in the new report.

News_Module: The search continues

Mr Akers scoured satellite images and said he has found items that appear to be a tail and wings of the aircraft.

His claims follow others made this week. American pilot Michael Hoebel stated that he believed he had identified wreckage of the plane off the coast of Thailand, while the Adelaide-based imaging company GeoResonance argued that their analysis suggested the plane may have come down in the Bay of Bengal.

Mr Akers told the Mail that his findings could be compatible with those of Mr Hoebel, as the currents in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand are strong and wreckage from the plane would have moved.

Shortly after the plane disappeared on March 8, Mike McKay claimed he saw a fireball in the sky that may have been MH370 from an oil rig off the Vietnam coast, but his claims were largely forgotten as the search moved further afield.

News_Image_File: Messages of support ... People walk past a billboard in support of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

MORE ON THE REPORT

The report from the Malaysian authorities was released with a table breaking down what happened in the four hours after MH370 went missing.

It showed Kuala Lumpur air traffic control querying other countries about their knowledge of the plane and a request to another Malaysian Airlines plane in the region to make contact with MH370 on emergency frequencies. There was no answer.

Then, four hours after it disappeared, at 5.30am, the Kuala Lumpur Coordination Centre was activated.

The five-page report, compiled for the International Civil Aviation Organisation, is dated April 9 and contains little information that is not already publicly known. It largely deals with the plane’s early flight path and contains the audio of the cockpit and air traffic control communications shortly before it disappeared.

It is the first time the audio has been publicly released and it does not reveal any obvious panic

News_Image_File: Still waiting ... Chinese women, relatives of Chinese passengers on-board the Malaysia Airlines MH370 cry as they wait for Malaysia embassy staff to meet them outside the Malaysia embassy in Beijing, China.

TIME FOR FAMILIES TO GO HOME

The new report came as Malaysia Airlines announced that it was closing its family assistance centres and urged the families of passengers to leave the hotels where they have stayed and to go home to await further news.

The airline will provide advance compensation payments to the families of those on board the missing jetliner. Malaysia Airlines had been paying the hotel bills of family members who have stayed in hotels since the plane disappeared, particularly in China.

The airline has assured the families of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight 370 the search will go on to find the plane and their loved ones in a new underwater phase.

Malaysian Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya assured the relatives of passengers that the airline remains deeply sympathetic to their plight.

“Despite such an intensified search operations, probably the largest one in human history, we have to face the hard reality that there is still no trace of the aircraft, and the fate of the missing passengers and crew remains unknown till this day,” Mr Yahya said.

“Malaysia Airlines is acutely conscious of, and deeply sympathetic to the continuing unimaginable anguish, distress and hardship suffered by those with loved ones on board the flight.

“We share the same very feelings and have been doing whatever we can to ease the pain of the families and to provide comfort for them.”News_Rich_Media: Relatives of those on board missing flight MH370 will be sent home to await updates on the search.